INDIANAPOLIS — For over two days, Mike Gardner has been without power at his home near Holliday Park on Indianapolis' north side.
"We just flat out, just lost power. We heard the transformer blow. And then I realized quickly that when the tree fell, took the wires down and yanked my power line right off my roof," Gardner said.
On Sunday, he was finally able to get out in the yard, starting to clean everything up all the damage from Hurricane Helene's remnant storms here in central Indiana.
Gardner and his wife had friends in from out of town, so they had to make it work.
"We've got a decent room in the back that's got a lot of windows so we can sit and visit when we get up the morning, my RV's got a little generator, so I made a pot of coffee," Gardner said.
One of the trees that fell took power lines with it. Gardner doesn't want to touch it until he can talk to the AES, but that's proven to be a challenge.
"One of my frustrations is we just get put on hold and if you go to their website, they say, if you have power lines down, call. Well, those have gone nowhere," Gardner said.
Most of his neighbors are still without power, too.
"We have been running candles at night, charging our devices at the library and at different places," neighbor Monique Candle said.
Candle works from home with her husband, so now they are left with making a plan to start the work week.
"We've got our hotspots and working through that," Candle said.
Despite the countless hours without power, neighbors are trying to stay positive.
"You got to kind of be thankful for the things that are working. Since I know, certainly in western North Carolina and lots of other places in the country, that it really have been so much worse," Candle said.